Wong Fu Productions first started making videos in 2003 in college at UC San Diego. Starting out as friends and dormmates Wong Fu Productions is now headed by Philip Wang (left), Wesley Chan (left) and Ted Fu (center).

Wong Fu Productions started making videos in 2003.

Many people think that we started on the date that’s listed on our YouTube channel, in 2007, but the reality is, we’ve been making videos and posting them online since 2003, before YouTube even existed. Over the years, our fanbase has grown gradually, strictly by word of mouth, and when YouTube came along, we were given a whole new platform to share our work on.

2003-2006 – The College Years

The first official “wong fu video” was released on June 5, 2003. It was a lip sync video that Philip made with his dormmates to Justin Timberlake’s “Senorita”. The video was shared around the college and soon spread to other college campuses. Over the rest of their time in college, Philip and his friends periodically made lip sync videos solely for fun and whenever there was time. Philip met Wes and Ted in 2004 through a visual arts class they were taking. Together, the 3 started making short films in addition to music videos, and even did some simple client work. During the final year of school, the 3 decided to venture into a larger project, a full length feature movie. They spent their entire 4th year of college working on this film, on top of school and jobs, and premiered the finished product, “A Moment with You”, just weeks before graduating.

2006-2008 – The Transition Years

After graduating in June 2006, Wes, Ted, and Phil decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue the prospects of filmmaking. This was no easy task, as the realities of the real world soon hit them. Thankfully they still had the support of Wong Fu fans which was still growing. For the first time WFP went on tour, initially to screen their movie “A Moment with You”. The “AMY Tour” took them to over 25 schools around the continent and was also the first time they got to see fans and supporters face to face. The 3 knew that WFP was truly something special and could not just be tossed aside of given up. As a result they continued to make new short films and music videos to keep WFP going. In addition they took on freelance video jobs for tv stations, small businesses, and even weddings.

In 2007 WFP made and released a short series called “Just a Nice Guy”. This series marked the beginning of the “Nice Guy” brand, as Phil wore a shirt that Wes designed in the short, and soon, thousands of fans were asking where they could buy the shirt. Ted started making a online store and the “AreYouANiceGuy” online store was launched. As the brand grew with new products and more customers, WFP was able to have financial freedom from freelance work and could now completely focus on WFP work. It was during this year that they guys also began working with Far East Movement. Their first project together was a short film called “You’ve Got a Friend”, made to promote their single of the same name. This was the beginning of a long term partnership of projects and endeavors together, primarily the “International Secret Agents” Concerts.

In 2008 WFP spent most of the year working on the prospect of a new full length movie. After being approached by a couple producers and a manager, they began work on a new script and story that was intended to be their next film. With various meetings with studios and independent production houses, and even a trip to Cannes to promote, the project was soon losing focus and WFP was losing control of what they originally wanted; even worse, people were trying to change them as a group. In late 2008, the guys decided to shelve this project, “The Sleep Shift”, and to bring things back to the way WFP was originally created and run.

2009-2010 – The Collaboration Years

Though WFP had had their work on YouTube for years already, they had never really gotten involved in the community or tried to push their online presence. Starting in early 2009, through meeting David Choi and working on his first music video, WFP began meeting and opening up to the online “youtube” community. From a project with David, to meeting Christine “Happyslip”, then Kevin “KevJumba”, Cathy Nguyen, AJ Rafael, Ryan “NigaHiga” and so on, WFP was now plugged into this network of extremely talented and good people. From there, projects developed and through these collaborations, WFP’s online presence expanded rapidly, even better, they made new friends.

2011-Present – Expansion and Bridging the Gap

Since becoming one of the top YouTube channels, and mainstream media finally catching on to the new media industry, Wong Fu Productions is now finding itself in another, new transition period. With more commercial and mainstream opportunities, WFP now balances producing major projects with large companies like AT&T (Away We Happened) and Subaru (Company Car), and continuing the independent spirit by always making time to do personal, “for fun”, projects the same way they started years before.

No doubt this is an important time for WFP as the industry they started in is quickly changing, and they too must adapt. Outgrowing their first office, building a small but solid team, and producing at a rate they’ve never done before, are all steps in the direction of growth and finding a way to be successful in both the commercial and independent worlds.